The Air Force has stripped 17 officers of their ability to control nuclear missiles after a withering evaluation of their unit’s skills.

“We are, in fact, in a crisis right now,” the group’s deputy commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press.

A March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., earned the equivalent of a “D” when on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. The officers tested better in other areas, but the unit’s overall readiness was so low officers decided something had to be done immediately.

The wing is one of three that operate the nation’s fleet of 450 Minuteman III missiles; the two others are at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., and F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.

“We are frustrated anytime we’re performing less than we expect of ourselves,” the unit’s commander, Col. Robert Vercher, told AP.

Problems in the unit previously included a August 2007 incident in which an Air Force B-52 bomber flew from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., while accidentally carrying nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

Besides the 17 officers who lost their missile keys, another officer faces possible discipline for deliberately failing to follow missile safety rules that Air Force officials said could have compromised missile launch codes, though he did not.

Bruce Blair, a former Air Force ICBM launch control officer in the 1970s and now a researcher at Princeton University, told the AP that the case underlies a larger problem in the nuclear force.

“The nuclear air force is suffering from a deep malaise caused by the declining relevance of their mission since the Cold War’s end over 20 years ago,” Blair said. “Minuteman launch crews have long been marginalized and demoralized by the fact that the Air Force’s culture and fast-track careers revolve around flying planes, not sitting in underground bunkers baby-sitting nuclear-armed missiles.”

That may be true, but whoever is baby-sitting those missiles still needs to bring their A game to work each day.